Ethan Shaw will talk about alpine snowfields on July 17 at Cook Memorial Library in La Grande.

LA GRANDE — I’m pretty camera shy, but one of my favorite pictures is a shot my husband took of me standing in a snowfield during a hike on the Elkhorn Crest Trail. A frozen wave of ice-cold snow recedes beneath my feet — and I’m wearing shorts!

It’s been nine years since that photo was taken, but I still marvel at the idea of winter in July in the Blue Mountains. Now Eastern Oregon residents have the chance to learn about the “distribution and significance of alpine snowfields” from a local expert, Ethan Shaw.

Shaw is an independent researcher and freelance writer for The Observer whose topics emphasize the outdoors and their natural history. He hails from Cove where he also founded the Wallowa-Blue Mountain Snowfield Project. Shaw said the project was inspired by similar research projects conducted in places like the Scottish Highlands and the Japanese Alps.

The project surveys and collects data on snowfield activity in the Wallowa and Blue Mountain Ranges, including my favorites, the Elkhorns and Strawberries. His passion for the project is self-evident, as he writes in the latest edition of “Ripples in the Grande Ronde.”

“Snow is a pretty remarkable substance, one that’s easy to take for granted (or — and let’s be honest — to curse on occasion). It’s relentlessly changeable, for one thing, a real shapeshifter.”

(“Ripples” is the official publication of The Grande Ronde Model Watershed, a nonprofit organization that helps to fund river restoration projects within the Grande Ronde Basin.)

Shaw is an experienced presenter whose past topics have included how and where snowfields form, snowfield hydrology and ecology, as well as how scientists monitor the region’s seasonal and perennial mountain snow patches.

Even if you’re not a fan of the white stuff, Shaw points out how the season-long buildup of snow in our remarkable regional mountains sustains everything from “salmon and steelhead to crops and cattle.”

Shaw will present his knowledge on Wednesday, July 17, 6 p.m. in the Community Room at the Cook Memorial Library, 2006 Fourth St. The lecture is part of the library’s Summer Speaker Series.